Technology Tuesday: Pandora Internet Radio

I love music. I need music. 

I need music, especially, at work. I do my best work when I am rocking out to music. When I was in college, I had my first Sony Walkman (the yellow one, remember?) I bought it my first week at Ohio State and would rock out to INXS as I walked across The Oval and waited for my class to start. When I was in the work world I had a stack of CDs at my desk, always. I always have my headphones on when I am working on something I really need to concentrate on. It's probably counter to what most people do when they need to concentrate, but whatever, it works.

I am a big fan of iTunes and used to use my iPod at work all the time. But, I didn't like keeping my work laptop muddled with all of my iTunes files. So, I quit using it. And I discovered... Pandora. Pandora is awesome. Internet Radio is fantastic. I can make a channel based on my favorite musician or my favorite type of music. It takes your selected artist (Michael Buble) and then sprinkles in similar artists or similar type songs in your channel. You can also choose from other users' channels that they've made available. 

All for free. It's pretty sweet.

Pandora Internet Radio is awesome. What's awesomer? You can use Pandora on your phone. It works on a BlackBerry, iPhone, Andriod, and the Palm Pre. I use it at the gym. Most of the time, it works fine, no streaming issues, no freeze-ups. It's really cool. It definitely taxes your battery so be warned. 

So, I have channels set up for Madonna, U2, Christmas, Michael Jackson, Journey, Taylor Swift, Michael Buble, and Lady Gaga.

Don't judge. 

There is also a home theater option that allows you to listen to Pandora without using your computer--directly through a home theater system. Nice. I'd be interested in that, I think. It's like your own personal jukebox. How cool is that?


So, Pandora is my pick for Technology Tuesday. Enjoy!